Petersham Town Hall


The Petersham Town Hall is an Australian heritage-listed town hall located at 107 Crystal Street in Petersham, a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney. It was built in 1937–38 in the Inter-War Stripped Classical architectural style by architects Rudder & Grout, and replaced the first Petersham Town Hall on the site, which was designed in the Victorian Rennaissance Revival style by Thomas Rowe in 1880–1882. The Town Hall was the seat of Petersham Municipal Council from 1938 to 1948 and from 1948 to 1974 was the seat of the Municipality of Marrickville, which absorbed Petersham. When the council moved to new offices across the street in 1974, the town hall has primarily been used as a meeting hall, community centre, filming location and archival office.

First Town Hall, 1880–1937

Second Petersham Town Hall

The town hall's distinctive architecture and largely intact Art Deco interiors has made it a popular filming location for film and television, including Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom, A Place to Call Home, 60 Minutes and Paper Giants.

Heritage listing and conservation

The Town Hall was first listed in 2001 under the Marrickville Local Environment Plan as "a good example of Art Deco civic architecture of the late 1930s. The strong vertical elements and exposed brickwork make it a dominant element within the area which developed as the municipal centre of Petersham from the 1880s. The Town Hall has been associated with a stream of influential people and continues to be an actively used and recognised resource to the local community. It is considered by the NSW RAIA to be an important twentieth century civic building. Its stately Art Deco design, its location opposite the Marrickville Council administration building and Council Chambers make the Petersham Town Hall building an identifiable and actively used landmark within the municipality."

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